How have you adapted to the "New Normal?"

[CyberCubed]

The "New Normal," the "new normal," the "New Normal," the "NEW NORMAL"

The NEW NORMAL.

How have you adapted? 2020 gave us new terms such as, "social distancing," the "new normal," and "Covid."

What do you do differently?

I rarely go outside unless I have to
I always wear a mask when I do go out
I do not come into contact with people
I wash my hands a bit more frequently than usual
I saved a whole ton of money not having to buy subway fare into Manhattan

Have you adapted to the new normal?

[Leo656]

I sit around counting the money left in my unemployment and watching my bank account closely.

I wear a mask despite nobody in this area being sick or ever having been sick.

I try not to use too much toilet paper in preparation for the inevitable second panic and the hoarding to begin anew.

I wait months for very expensive packages to be delivered from other countries that should have been here in June but can't leave their point of origin until further notice because of "precautions".

I think about how hard I worked to get where I was at with my career and try not to dwell on the fact that I'll never be able to go back to that again.

I try not to get depressed at the fact that if things don't change soon I'll be mopping floors for a living next to some guy who doesn't know how to read, even though I have certifications and he never graduated high school.

I watch my muscle mass shrink because I can't go to the gym and have to do the best I can in my driveway with a set of dumbbells.

I don't get to see my friends because it's not "all clear" yet and none of us feel like congregating when we're gonna be "forced" to sit around wearing masks just to watch f*cking movies or whatever.
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The upside is, I got a ton of sh*t done around the house this past few months that I never would have gotten done if I'd still been working 6 days a week. That and I was able to get back into some old hobbies and fill in some gaps in my various toy collections. All of that is Good.

But if this is "The New Normal" then I'm eventually gonna find a very tall bridge and take a leap. I am absolutely not going to live the rest of my life this way just because OTHER people are afraid and insist that I conform to their arbitrary standards of "safety". I'd just as soon cash in my chips. I've had a decent run. But I've sacrificed enough for one lifetime. I'm done bending over.

[Sumac]

Here in Moscow we are back to normal, which means most people don't wear masks, almost no-one wears gloves and no-one cares about social distancing. Not that you can keep ANY distance in the Moscow subway during a rush hour.

Most of the companies and malls work as usual. There are some limitations, but they are not particularly obvious and very few enforce them.

I am traveling on the subway and buses throughout the day and visit a lot of places, mostly business centers and office buildings and almost no-one asks to put on a mask or something like that.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Here in Moscow we are back to normal, which means most people don't wear masks, almost no-one wears gloves and no-one cares about social distancing. Not that you can keep ANY distance in the Moscow subway during a rush hour.

Most of the companies and malls work as usual. There are some limitations, but they are not particularly obvious and very few enforce them.

I am traveling on the subway and buses throughout the day and visit a lot of places, mostly business centers and office buildings and almost no-one asks to put on a mask or something like that.

I absolutely can't wait for this stupid election to be over with; hopefully that will get things back on track over here. If you guys can, so can we.

As I've said, it's quite "interesting" how much better things are in countries that don't suffer from TDS.

[IndigoErth]

Hate to tell you this, but "new normal" is not at all a new term. My mom accepted "a new normal" as a way of coping with life in the wake of the loss of my father almost five years ago, and the term had certainly been around longer than that.

For me... it's fine. Masks are nothing to make drama over and pretty much just going about things as usual with the addition of the it. And like many introverts (or also humans annoyed by other humans lol), I've been training for this my entire life so no big deal really.

Honestly, the only part that's hard is the 6' rule. Difficult for people to remember and hard not to have to pass by each other closer than that in the stores.

The only thing that probably annoys me though is the arrow directions in the store aisles and trying to find and get to what I need. lol I try to abide by them for the most part, but if no one else is there... eh, whatever. Not like anyone is being perfect about it.

[Leo656]

When a person's entire livelihood depends on being around large groups of people, all of this is much more than a minor inconvenience. Just saying. 100% of my income was dependent on being around lots of people, all of the time. And at my age it's not very realistic to expect one to "start over" and learn an entirely new set of marketable skills. We still don't even know which jobs are prepared to hire people back in large numbers, yet. Even a lot of auto workers around here are still laid off and that industry was always thought to be "bulletproof". I don't even think there's any point in trying to learn a new trade until we know which trades will be valuable by this time next year.

For SOME, this has been inconvenient. For others, it's been life-destroying. Juuuuust sayin'.

Anyways. I ignore the arrow nonsense, as do most people around here. Guidelines at best. I pretend they're not even there, nobody ever says anything to me about it. If I'm 7/8's up the aisle and I forgot that I already passed by the canned tuna, I'm not making a giant f*cking circle to grab one thing. F*ck them arrows, they ain't the boss'a me. The first week, people sort of tried to follow them, after that everyone just sort of gave up. You all have to be huddled close while waiting at the check-out line for 45 minutes on the way out, anyways; making everyone walk in one direction or other up and down the aisle is trifling nonsense.

So many of the precautions are exactly like airport security: A big theatrical production to provide the illusion of safety, when in reality what's gonna happen is gonna happen and the preventative measures do little if anything to mitigate that.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

"The New Normal" is not normal, and never will be.

Anyways, life is pretty much back to pre-covid conditions in New Zealand where I live, because the country has all but eliminated covid by completely shutting down international travel and isolating the few known cases.

Otherwise, people now gather in large groups here again, hardly anyone uses masks, the arrows are meaningless and most people just frankly don't care about the media's mass hysteria anymore.

[garsh]

Other than the mask and gloves, the only big change is I try to let new things I bring into the house sit untouched longer, or treat them with disinfectant wipes. I'm a major introvert by nature, was fired from my last job long before, and was already using gloves on occasion before all this just to prevent routine illness. For me it's been an improvement.

[Andrew NDB]

I refuse to consider this the new normal. I reject the idea.

[sdp]

I love the new normal, this pandemic has been a blessing in disguise. I've gotten more stuff done, been more productive, interacted with less people, wasted less money. More businesses understand that work from home is more productive etc etc. For the most part people are doing stuff they should've been doing all along like washing their god damn hands and not invading people's personal bubbles.

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

Anyways, life is pretty much back to pre-covid conditions in New Zealand where I live, because the country has all but eliminated covid by completely shutting down international travel and isolating the few known cases.

NZ's population did an amazing job, instead of blaming the government and putting excuses out there they followed simple rules and are enjoying the benefits. Granted it helps that it's a rather isolated island but you don't have to stray far to see why this keeps spreading.

[Voltron]

I got a sick new hobby. I sit on message boards and argue about nothing in particular. Really passes the time. Unfortunately, none of my hats fit anymore.

Can't have it all, I suppose.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Voltron

Unfortunately, none of my hats fit anymore.

Is that a metaphor for something, or do you mean you literally have hats that don't fit? What happened?

[Voltron]

It's a joke. I'm implying that my head (ego) has swollen. It's poking fun at my long-winded ******** posts.

I'd say that the joke isn't funny now that I had to explain it, but that would mean it was funny in the first place.

[Prowler]

By going outside less. Basically I only go outside if I really need to. And my visits to the supermarket have become rarer as well.

I don't have friends or a particularly active social life, so adapting to the "new normal" has been fairly easy to me. But I still wish we weren't living in a pandemic ofc. Can't wait for the day where I no longer need to wear a mask when entering a supermarket or something.

[Andrew NDB]

Once the schools reopen -- and they are getting there, finally, even here in WA (by April big strides will be in place) -- that will start the collapse of the house of cards this is largely built on. The teachers' unions will continue to fight against it, though, as they know... as soon as the schools are reopened, that's it. Their "new normal" will be over.

Some pretty sick stuff out there about teachers' unions getting caught gloating about, "Hahaha, people just want their babysitters back!!" on video chats they didn't realize were being public. They should fire the whole rotten lot of them resisting and hire a new batch of teachers that actually want to teach kids.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Once the schools reopen -- and they are getting there, finally, even here in WA (by April big strides will be in place) -- that will start the collapse of the house of cards this is largely built on. The teachers' unions will continue to fight against it, though, as they know... as soon as the schools are reopened, that's it. They "new normal" will be over.

Some pretty sick stuff out there about teachers' unions getting caught gloating about, "Hahaha, people just want their babysitters back!!" on video chats they didn't realize were being public. They should fire the whole rotten lot of them resisting and hire a new batch of teachers that actually want to teach kids.

They're reopening schools in my country soon I believe. The current lockdown restrictions will slowly be lifted until May. So I assume we're gonna have a rather normal summer but still will have to wear masks when going to the supermarket, cafés, etc.

...and I bet a 3rd wave of covid-19 will strike us and many other countries again. Probably by September or something, I've guessing. There seem to be multiple different strains of the virus by now. A few others will probably pop up until then.

Hopefully, with more people getting vaccinated, the 3rd wave won't be as strong as the 2nd one which was the most aggressive so far.

[Andrew NDB]

It's never going to stop "striking." The solution simply can't be "close everything down forever!" We played ball for a year... enough is enough.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

The solution simply can't be "close everything down forever!"

That's exactly what the elite bankers and lobbyists have in mind. What better way to keep the people under control forever than locked away in their homes, numbed by, distracted by and addicted to media?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

That's exactly what the elite bankers and lobbyists have in mind. What better way to keep the people under control forever than locked away in their homes, numbed by, distracted by and addicted to media?

A media that is day-in, day-out doing nothing but spreading fear. A lot of people seem to love it.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

A media that is day-in, day-out doing nothing but spreading fear. A lot of people seem to love it.

They are like sheep who have learned to enjoy being led to their slaughter. They will even shamelessly defend the corrupt and vile (((elites))) who control the banks, the media and the lobbies.